Within the field of agriculture ploughing has been around a long time as an effective tillage method.
Ploughing is used as a way to prepare the soil for seeding. When ploughing the soil is turned around, so that soil previously located in a certain depth will appear as a top layer of the soil. A typical ploughing depth is 18 to 20 cm, but can vary between 10 and 40 cm.
The turning of the soil upon ploughing will provide for aerating the soil and in this way will provide mineralization of soil and better drainage of water which improve fertility. Also, ploughing will remove traces of last year's crops as well as removal of any weed present on the ploughed field. In this way ploughing may be used as a mechanical weed control method, especially in ecological agriculture where herbicides are forbidden.
Ploughing is suitable for all types of soils. However, particularly soils with relatively high clay content need deeper loosening of the soil with regular intervals in order to not get too dense for optimum crop growth.
Today's ploughs comprises a frame to be towed behind or carried by a tractor or the like. The frame carries a number of plough bodies arranged inline in a direction transversal to the direction of movement through the soil in order to enable ploughing of a considerable width. Each plough body in turn comprises a mouldboard responsible for the turning of the soil. Furthermore, the plough bodies each comprise a point and a share. The point is responsible for starting the cut of the furrow. The share provides for a horizontal cut into a certain depth and thereby defines the ploughing depth.
The share and the point may be welded or bolted onto the plough mouldboard. Alternatively, the mouldboard, the share and the point may be bolted onto a bracket (frog),
To turn the soil around most of today's plough's mouldboards are shaped from a plate of metal which has been bended and twisted so as to form a curved surface having cross sections defining a part of a circle circumference. Plastic and slated bodies are also common.
Such twisted geometry of a mouldboard comprising a combined circular cylinder part which has been twisted around its axial direction provides for efficient ploughing.
Accordingly this type of plough mouldboard will upon ploughing enable the soil to break loose, be lifted up on the mouldboard and moved until it has been turned around at which point it has no longer any contact with the mouldboard.
Plough bodies today are optimized for speeds up to 6 km/h±2 km/h and the manufacturer's designs are commonly not focused on saving energy consumption and wear during towing.
However in order to make agriculture more efficient, it will be desirably to be able to perform ploughing at higher speeds.
Especially at higher speeds the need for ploughs exhibiting low draft force will be needed in order to meet the need of reduce energy consumption and in order to reduce wear and tear of the plough bodies.
However, even with today's sizes of ploughs and speed of ploughing, the energy consumption is considerable and the wear and tear on the plough mouldboard is noticeable to the extent that a plough regularly needs replacement of the part of the mouldboard being submerged into the soil.
Accordingly, there exist a need for an improved mouldboard for a plough which exhibits less draft in the soil and which accordingly encounters less wear and tear so that a ploughing is possible with a reduced energy consumption and so that less frequent replacement of the mouldboard is necessary.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mouldboard for a plough which overcomes the above-identified disadvantages.